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Saturday, April 9, 2011

More Shrinking and Pinking: The Barbie Edition

This was syndicated on BlogHer on April 11, 2011 as "Athletic Barbies and Real Women in Sports." Check it out HERE and see some more great images!

A few weeks ago I wrote about shrinking and pinking. What's that? It's how a many athletic clothing and gear manufacturers make products for women-- they simply shrink down the men's versions and dye them pink. I believe that being athletically strong and wearing pink (or purple or red or silver... or blue or orange or green for that matter) don't have to be mutually exclusive. In other words, the pinking of women's sports can be okay sometimes, but pinking and shrinking (whether that shrinking is in terms of attention, media coverage, or the size of those pink clothes) isn't a good combination.

As I was reading the latest ESPN The Magazine I came across the following spread, which got me thinking about shrinking and pinking again.

Only twelve of these Barbies (1975-2010) are wearing pink (red, white, and blue is the color scheme of choice). The most recent athletic Barbie, Race Car Driver Barbie, does wear fuchsia, though note that she is pretty much covered head to toe (admittedly, her skintight/shrunken jumpsuit is probably not one Danica Patrick would wear on race day!).

What really struck me was the attire of the Coach Barbies. The ten athlete Barbies are wearing outfits that, though not very fashionable, aren't so far off from what a real-life participant might wear (skintight racecar driver suit aside). However, the two Coach outfits are pretty absurd. Gymnastics Coach Barbie is wearing teeny-tiny shorts (with what looks to be a purse and ballet flats) and Soccer Coach Barbie is wearing a mini-mini skirt. I wonder why Mattel decided to portray Women's World Cup Soccer Player Barbie in fairly accurate soccer clothes, but didn't follow through with the coach nine years later? The 2008 mini-Barbie soccer player is also wearing a skirt, and playing with a pink/white ball, not the standard black/white one depicted in 1999.

I actually have never owned a Barbie doll; as I child I preferred American Girl dolls and real-life heroes. This week I discovered two Crimson athletes who certainly qualify as role models. Harvard freshmen Mariah Pewarski and Morgan Powell play two, yes TWO, varsity sports-- field hockey and lacrosse. Neither girl is ever out of season as they balance school work, social lives, and practices and games. Who needs pink Barbies when you have Crimson role models like that?